As National Press Mostly Snoozes, Add Seattle to the List of Cities Where Homelessness Is Rising

News Busters ^ | January 22, 2015 | Tom Blumer

[george76]

A week ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat, called homelessness in his city and the rest of King County a "full-blown crisis." Based on the numbers presented in coverage of the area's situation, we can certainly add the Emerald City to the list of areas where homelessness has been on the rise. Odds are that many readers here didn't know that, because the national press hardly ever pays attention to homelessness when a Democrat occupies the White House.

Now imagine the firestorm which would erupt if a Republican or conservative proposed the "solution," however allegedly temporary, Murray is advancing .. : Seattle's mayor proposes new tent cities to deal with homelessness Seattle Mayor Ed Murray will submit legislation to the City Council this week seeking approval of three new homeless encampments, saying the tent cities are needed to deal with rising homelessness

...

So there are already six "homeless encampments," better known as "tent cities." Now there will be nine — and this is considered a positive step. The Seattle Times reports that the homelessness numbers rose significantly from January 2013 to January 2014:

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There's strong reason to believe that the situation will continue to deterioriate, and that the nation's press will largely continue to ignore it if it indeed does. It's almost impossible to imagine the press cutting a big-city Republican any slack for expanding tent cities as a form of public policy, or the nation's press not tying situations like these back to a Republican or conservative presidential administration.

[rktman]

Crap. Sorry if I cut anybody’s pay. :>}

[riverdawg]

Both boarding houses and SRO hotels were put out of business by various government laws and regulations. For example, boarding houses had to pass safety inspections, their kitchens had to meet commercial health standards, the owners had to rent to males and females, and on and on ...

[ansel12]

When I was a little boy, the finest meal I ever had was from two old ladies cooking in their home (a house? I was very young) and serving men at a huge table, it was home style where you passed the large bowls and the platters to each other, and at least one of the stoves was in the same room as the table, the best cooks in the world, “grandmother cooking” of the forgotten past.

Back then my dad tried to explain that if you bought a place to live, look for one that could serve as a boarding house, for additional income.

[razorback-bert]

On one of my trips to Seattle, we walked all around town, when got to one section of town, we ran into a circus of crazies.
Later when we were talking to friends, who lived there, we found that we had wandered into the rehab section of town.

Last trip to Seattle, we found many of those had moved to the new low income housing area near Pike Place.

[riverdawg]

Many young women, including my mother, migrated to urban areas during WWII to work in the defense industry. The first place they lived was often a boarding house like the one you described, but exclusively for women. Some of the women stayed indefinitely and others paired up and moved out to shared apartments after a few months.

Some of the old timers I know remember eating lunch at boarding houses near their place of employment. The boarders were fed breakfast and dinner, but the public could eat a home-cooked lunch there for a dollar or so.

[Steve_Seattle]

But the MSM keep telling me the economy is booming! To be honest, though, homelessness is often the product of personal failure or incapacity - drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, severe depression, family breakdown - that makes those individuals impervious to any social remedy other than forcible institutionalization, and that is taboo.

[Steve_Seattle]

"I’ve read in the past that many homeless people desire to be homeless."

In the past there were such people, the traditional travelling hobo, and author Jack Kerouac romanticized their way of life and even lived it himself to a certain degree. But that isn't the kind of homeless people we typically see now.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Last trip to Seattle, we found many of those had moved to the new low income housing area near Pike Place."

I live in Shoreline, a suburb just north of Seattle, and we've been seeing homeless around here for many years. Just recently, it seemed that a small homeless enclave was trying to establish itself in a nearby parking lot, but the police apparently keep breaking it up. I think the rule is that you can park in the same place only up to 48 or 72 hours, or some such limit. (These were people living in cars and vans.)

[Steve_Seattle]

The $15 minimum wage has nothing to do with it. It hasn't even kicked-in yet, and won't for several years. It is being phased in incrementally. The probable causes of homelessness here are:

1. Drug and alcohol addiction.
2. Mental illness.
3. Family breakdown.
4. High cost of living, especially rent.
5. Lack of motivation and personal responsibility; depression.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Called them Obamavilles, just like the Dem’s called homeless camps Hoovervilles back in the day.

[zeestephen]

Re: “homeless encampments”

One of the largest encampments is literally next door to the King County Courthouse.

It’s been there for years now and turned a once beautiful park with hundred year old trees into a muddy wasteland.

Panhandling, drinking, drug use, drug sales, and sleeping on the sidewalks are endemic in the surrounding neighborhood, even though there is a constant police presence in that area.

One of the largest free kitchens in Seattle is just a few blocks away beneath a network of I-5 overpasses.